This is a bit far off to start talking about now as it is an idea for next year, but what moters other than the CIMs would be best for a 4-moter Mecanum drive system if the right gearing is used? I was thinking maybe Banebots 775s would work, but I’m only basing that on what I’ve heard about them, not specs.
>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<< nevermind
I’m curious why you would want to try a drivetrain with motors other than the CIMs.
The CIMs are the most robust motors in the kit and the drivetrain is the most demanding application. There is a reason that the CIMs have been used by almost every team for the drivetrain since they were introduced.
All of the motors should be identical models for best results. This severely limits your choices.
Basically, with the 2011 kit, you’ve got CIMs, Windows, and RS-775s. Windows are tiny motors that would not be well suited for this task at all. CIMs are nice, heavy (good for “down low” mechanisms like drivetrains), can take any kind of stalling or abuse, and have a higher peak power than RS-775s. I don’t see why you’d want to use anything but CIMs.
There isn’t any fundamental reason why 4 RS775s or even RS550’s couldn’t run a drive train. In years past FIRST robots routinely drove with weaker motors then those. I suppose the real question is: what do the CIM’s do for a manipulator that you can’t do with other motors?
They are, obviously, significantly more powerful then our other current options, and very robust. If you wanted to create a very powerful lifting arm or other mechanism then they aren’t bad choices and teams do use them for such things. However, I think it would be hard to make the case for using all four CIM motors on manipulators instead of at least two staying on the drive train. But then again, next year we may be lifting lead bricks instead of inner tubes, so who knows?
They can, but the more powerful the drive, the faster you can get away with gearing it.
This person’s motivation also could be challenging themself to “go outside the box.” Kind of like someone’s proposal to make their robot as autonomous as possible up to fully autonomous.